Lake Rodney forge

@Nazli had gone with the princess to mereo. she was not present, then, to help tavina pack or to explain the curious way the herbs had been rummaged.

she had gone to treva first, informing the queen to be that she would be gone for a few days. next, @Maegi. one dose of poppy carried.

tavina looked at the addled woman. "you have children now, noble one." she set down the package of tiny seeds. "when i return, we will begin the weaning process." she left unclear what she meant and turned quickly away.

the wind was hard when she reached the steppes. it threatened to flatten her as she trudged away from akashingo, hard invisible fingers tearing at her dark fur. tavina rested in a woodland, skirted the caldera. 

it was still moonhigh when she arrived, disconsolate and late, to their rendezvous. "damn it," she swore, before lifting her voice in a brisk howl for @Nala, hoping the other was close.

nala had no remnants of home anymore.

she did her best not to think of the saints, she wore no scent of them, she seemed thin but not unhealthy from time on her own. the swimming has trained her muscles and the bountiful life of the lake kept her fed when needed. she had not yet thought if she might return or not.

she had been resting in a bed of flowers she had gathered the day before when the call stirred her awake.

blinking rapidly, staring around her.

tavina?

tavina.

oh! tavina!

nala hastily bolted upright, her fur styled with the bed head of her slumber. any gifts she had collected were forgotten in her haste to meet the medic where she had called.

tavina!

for a moment she despaired. and then her ears swung upright. her voice was ringing off somewhere in the darkened distance, and then not so distant. "nala," she greeted when they had come upon each other. 

the other woman was bed-rumpled and wreathed in a bouquet of flowers; she smelled of sleep and florals and the wilderness around the lake.

tavina felt her pulse trip over itself. "it's good to see you, really good," she said, more than a little breathless herself as tail stirred behind her hocks.

for a moment the severity of this visit, lilitu's request to meet nala first; it all hung, suspended.

she had not realized how wildly her heart pattered until she ceased movement.

standing here in her awful display before tavina. this was not the impression she had wanted to make. she had thought she might have gone for a swim, groomed herself, plucked them a meal.

but somehow it felt rather real this way.

to be on display in perhaps a less than charming state. her gaze fluttered to the doctor's paws.

it's good to see you too. she offered as her own tail swayed and betrayed the shyness of her face. i, um, hope you can forgive my...messy state!

soft laughter.

her blue and browns eyes finally returned to the purple ones across from her.

"no," tavina said hurriedly, and on impulse she reached to smooth the wild hairs over nala's brow. "you look enchanting." her smile was quick and radiant, almost a blush.

lilitu's words reverberated in her mind.

"i — need to talk to you, nala. about the saints. i'm not certain you know who they are." her purpled eyes searched the exquisite face; and how she loathed so to dash the fragile fragrance of their meet so soon.

tavina's touch only solidified her desires to banish all thoughts of a return. she could live here, in this moment. bathed in moonlight and looking like some sort of wild fae come to enchant the good doctor.

but there were words and they felt nearly plucked from her mind.

her face bore a look of shame and she found herself unable to hold a gaze on the doctor. i think i do, she started with slowly. they all seem so...brutish! barbaric! she declared as if it was almost unbelievable. and they have some sort of crazy history but i didn't care, i just thought it was a...a home. they had been so nice to me. i was their bard! she was a sudden flurry of words and began to pace in a small stretch of space in front of tavina.

but i came here to see you. then i went back and i — she sighed dramatically, she might have thrown up her arms if she had been able to. i realized i don't fit in. it's not for me, tavina. i'm not supposed to be with a bunch of warriors.

only now did she look back to the doctor, her brows pinched furiously on usually soft features.

i feel so dumb.

tavina's breath tumbled out in a rush. nala, speaking all the things she had come to say, talking in exclamations and definites and all the while, white-gold and splendid. and maybe it came to pass that the rush of adrenaline was far too great for tavina to ignore.

that it carried her in a sweep forward, burning and relieved and somehow still desperate, just a tinge; buoyed her forward until their mouths came together in a kiss that she broke almost at once, apologetic and shocked.

and unable to pull away; she stared shaken into nala's face.

"they're murderers," she whispered, but in all actuality the time to talk about the saints had come and gone, she was forcing it now. "there's a princess in akashingo who might offer you a place to stay in her birth-pack." she dared not kiss nala again. "i've arranged it. you're to meet her first and then —"

well. she couldn't very well promise a meeting with pharaoh when she expected him to throw things at her over the mere suggestion.

she felt so dumb. so foolish and this feeling only felt amplified looking at tavina. she didn't know what to say or —

oh.

a kiss that came in hot like a summer breeze through her fur. gone almost as quick as it had started. for a moment more she wondered if this all was a fever dream. perhaps some type of summer cold had swept over her in the night and now she had these wonderfully vivid dreams of tavina.

"they're murderers,"

"i've arranged it. you're to meet her first and then —"

she blinked, once then twice. she overwhelmed by all of this great burst of emotion. she had awoken in a frenzy to see tavina and not one moment in this meeting had her heart stopped its wild beat.

she couldn't think about it. any of it. the complex details of how tavina had already mapped this all out or why she felt the great need to tell the doctor yes to near anything. her entire take away from all of this had been the kiss. whispers of murderers and princesses and nala's head was full of butterflies.

this time she made the move, hoping silence the both of them for a moment with a kiss that was deeply appreciative and tender. as if she might convey some sense of immense gratefulness and pleasure in such the act.

she wanted to beg forgiveness for her bold and presumptuous nature, but she could see in nala's eyes that there was no need for it.

their second kiss was more forthcoming, something initiated by nala and held for a long and tender moment. her own mind was so awash in a thousand things but for this time it narrowed until nala was the sole focus of her entire being.

"i've been wanting to do that since we met, i think," tavina admitted when they at last parted. her eyes could not leave the sweet radiance of nala's face.

for a brief moment of complete fancy, she imagined staying here, staying in the lovely liminal bower of green and blue and flowers and nala.

she felt a sudden sheepishness in the moments that followed.

but it was a sheepishness of delight. overwhelmed with giddy pleasures and bashful blushing.

she wished for a million more kisses. she wished for a million more moments like this one together.

carefully tucking her head into the crook of tavina's neck. i wish i had been brave enough to do it last time. she confessed with a soft smile. you're not still in mourning, are you? for she found a braveness now and placed a careful, quick kiss to the cheek of the doctor. pulling her head back so she might meet tavina's gaze.

how easy it had been. she feasted her eyes upon nala; upon the curve of her cheek and the elegance of her neck, her slim shoulders, and yes the mouth she knew now to be rosepetal soft and just as yielding.

"no." a breath caught in her throat. "she is entombed now. pharaoh has moved on. akashingo is coming alive again." and it felt wrong, after seventy days of crying and tension and the investigation in there as well, it felt wrong.

but this was right, she here and free and with nala, and both of them looking down a hazy and unformed road. 

for good measure she kissed nala again, laughing gently. "i have a few days, you know. no one saw how quickly i got here."

tavina lived in such a whimsical world, it seemed.

princesses, pharaohs, entombment.

all of it went well above nala's head. all she had really know was the saints and even then she felt like she hadn't really known them. maybe she didn't need to know all of these things. she could know just tavina and the world felt right.

this felt true as the doctor kissed her again.

she wrapped her forelegs around tavina's neck.

i'll give you a few days of good dates then. she whispered soft and coy. before i have to go and meet this princess of yours.

tavina decided she had never felt so fanciful as when nala's arms were around her. her mind flashed to the palace, to all the spaces she inhabited, only in them each she mentally superimposed nala.

how pretty she would look there! and each night they would have one another, and — gracious. goodness. she was mad!

"i think you really will like her," tavina said with her mouth murmuring against the edge of the other's jawline. at last and more than a little reluctantly she pulled away. "are you hungry? i'm a decent fisher."

nala may have made a move to worry about the princess.

but she could not bring herself to. tavina was here kissing her, not this graciously kind princess. tavina had stolen away in the night to come see her. wouldn't it have been easier not to if this princess was a problem?

she laughed softly, leaning into the touch at her jaw before it escaped her completely.

you'll have to show me how you fish. she answered with a grin. perhaps too wide for the subject of simply hunting. i've been here for a while already... it felt like a confession! and i haven't nailed the art yet.

it was all she could do not to bundle nala back into her arms and show her the further way of things.

"i'll teach you," tavina said instead, forcing herself to be content with a gaze that lingered almost in a caress. "the secret is not to let them see your shadow, on the water."

but she had made no such move in that direction; she was helpless; transfixed! and all of a sudden her mind returned to that first thought with such a hunger as to eclipse any physical want she might have for food.

for better or worse, they were both transfixed. nala half convinced she still lived in a dream. but her thoughts grew in their temptations. in her dreams she might show tavina the depth of her appreciation and affections.

such a bold thought!

I should show you my sleeping place, first, her voice dropping into something soft and silken. overwhelmed by her own feelings, but letting them take control all the same.

your travel here must have been tiring...the fish will be there tomorrow.

"sleeping place?" tavina asked, perhaps a little hoarsely, perhaps a little incredulously! she ducked her flaming face to look down for a moment. "it was — it was tiring, i mean. mostly all the little tasks i had to do before leaving the palace."

tavina found her blush had not abated; her pulse galloped for a severe, fierce moment. nala in various repose, nala soft and inviting and warm with their —

"lead on," she said, more steady now despite the cadence of her heartbeat.

nala had been ready to sing a siren song of temptation and offers, had tavina refused a resting place. even if her thoughts did not play out in flesh, the doctor deserved somewhere soft. somewhere nala had tended to with great care.

she would take lead, the swaying of her tail impossible to hide. as if she wanted to!

i don't want you to have to do any work here with me, she admitted as they neared a place where grasses had been piled and flattened in a cradle of roots.

i want you to enjoy yourself. she confessed softly, turning once more to look at tavina before she softly motioned for the woman to settle.

i think that i will, she wanted to cheekily say, but found she was enraptured by the sight of nala's indication that they should lie next to one another.

and when the other had done so, when she curled closer, tavina came up on one elbow and looked down in the beautiful and delicate face. "i've thought about this moment often," she admitted in a whisper. "but now that it's come, i find i — i'm not sure how to proceed."

artfully, with focus; but it was nala now, capturing tavina with the depth of her eyes.

nala wish to whispered sweet things of honey and rose into the ears of tavina as they found themselves next to one another. yet she too was seized by the same uncertainty of the doctor.

did something follow? in those moments you thought of us — her heart a heavy pulse in her chest, pounding with an eagerness. she peered up at tavina with her mismatch eyes, longing and needing.

it was hard to hide behind any coyness now.

tavina's breath was light. "yes."

her heart felt caught in the gallop of a warhorse.

softly the sesh leant down; she pressed their mouths together for a delicate moment she scarcely accepted was happening.

tavina smiled against nala's lips. "did you think of anything?"

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the whimsical absurdity of it all was not lost on her.

the throes of sapphic yearning as she kissed and gazed upon the doctor. how idyllic it was and what a waste it would be to not take this moment to the fullest. face to face, smiling upon the lips of each other.

i thought of you showing me — her voice caught in her throat for a moment, a soft puff of air against tavina's lips if they still lingered. i have had too much time to think. i think i should act, for once.

showing her.

tavina's heartbeat quickened.

"there is — there are many things i could show you, nala." and she was responding, moving to pull the other closer. there was something in the dark purple of her eyes, and then a kiss, and then a long forgetting.

***

bliss. the ebb of sweetly overwhelmed flesh. the sound of nala breathing beside her. and the stars above.

something had changed.

of course, something had changed. she had, they had. her heart fluttered and flapped like hummingbird wings.

bliss. overwhelming and never ending.

there was the overwhelming need to say something, anything. to coo words of her grand bliss or to confess some grand epiphany.

instead she only hummed a small tune in the back of her throat, tending to the ruffled wisps of grey in tavina's nape.